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CNN Live Saturday
Central Park Celebrates 150
Aired July 19, 2003 - 14:52 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SEAN CALLEBS, CNN ANCHOR: Love those pictures, love that park and today is the 150th anniversary of New York's famous Central Park. CNN's Beth Nissan takes us to the urban refuge to explain its origin.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NISSAN: It is a miracle of foresight, the creation of America's first great public park in the heart of what has historically been America's most crowded commercial city. Central Park's designers, winners of city wide design contest, were Fredrick Law Olmstead, a writer who never designed anything in his life, and Calvert Fox an English architect. They did nothing less than remake nature, more than 800 rough acres of it.
At there direction battalions of workers hacked walking paths out of dense scrub, laid under ground water pipes to create streams and water falls, transplanted hundreds of trees, there are now 26,000 here, 150 species from the American Elm to the Chinese Tomb. A range of wildlife was introduced. Of the 800 species of birds in North America 275 can be spotted here.
Early work crews used gunpowder to blast through Manhattan's bedrock of granite and shift, make carriage ways and transfer roads still in use today. They dredged out ponds and lakes. They drained swamps to make the grassy expansions, the great lawn and the sheep meadow, a grazing area until 1934 now Manhattan's backyard, a place where a city kid can get a grass stain.
The park's designer gave it a formal side. Paved avenues, cobbled plazas, the mall where people have perambulated for more than 100 years. Gazebos and band shells for free concerts, a Central Park tradition still. It's all here, opera, jazz, swing. There is space here for children to play, grownups too, of all ages.
And something more, something priceless in a city where real estate costs a gasp per square foot, a place to sit quietly to be somehow alone in a city of 8 million, to be in the company of others, yet pull back from bustle and jostle. Frederick Olmstead once asked, is it doubtful that it does men good to come together in this way, in pure air and the light of heaven? No sir, not doubtful at all. Beth Nissan, CNN Central Park.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CALLEBS: The CNN machine keeps going and coming up at 3:00 p.m. on "NEXT @ CNN" all the news from earth space and cyber space. Is the drag net out on the Internet. Meet a man who says he's an Internet crime fighter making life miserable for free music down loaders.
At 4:00 p.m. on CNN "LIVE SATURDAY," "Dollar Signs" and finding the right mortgage just for you.
And at 5 Pm, up next some people in the news, Tour de France, Lance Armstrong. And people in the news continues with summer blockbuster heavyweight Will Smith, we are back in just a moment. Stay with us everyone.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired July 19, 2003 - 14:52 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SEAN CALLEBS, CNN ANCHOR: Love those pictures, love that park and today is the 150th anniversary of New York's famous Central Park. CNN's Beth Nissan takes us to the urban refuge to explain its origin.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NISSAN: It is a miracle of foresight, the creation of America's first great public park in the heart of what has historically been America's most crowded commercial city. Central Park's designers, winners of city wide design contest, were Fredrick Law Olmstead, a writer who never designed anything in his life, and Calvert Fox an English architect. They did nothing less than remake nature, more than 800 rough acres of it.
At there direction battalions of workers hacked walking paths out of dense scrub, laid under ground water pipes to create streams and water falls, transplanted hundreds of trees, there are now 26,000 here, 150 species from the American Elm to the Chinese Tomb. A range of wildlife was introduced. Of the 800 species of birds in North America 275 can be spotted here.
Early work crews used gunpowder to blast through Manhattan's bedrock of granite and shift, make carriage ways and transfer roads still in use today. They dredged out ponds and lakes. They drained swamps to make the grassy expansions, the great lawn and the sheep meadow, a grazing area until 1934 now Manhattan's backyard, a place where a city kid can get a grass stain.
The park's designer gave it a formal side. Paved avenues, cobbled plazas, the mall where people have perambulated for more than 100 years. Gazebos and band shells for free concerts, a Central Park tradition still. It's all here, opera, jazz, swing. There is space here for children to play, grownups too, of all ages.
And something more, something priceless in a city where real estate costs a gasp per square foot, a place to sit quietly to be somehow alone in a city of 8 million, to be in the company of others, yet pull back from bustle and jostle. Frederick Olmstead once asked, is it doubtful that it does men good to come together in this way, in pure air and the light of heaven? No sir, not doubtful at all. Beth Nissan, CNN Central Park.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CALLEBS: The CNN machine keeps going and coming up at 3:00 p.m. on "NEXT @ CNN" all the news from earth space and cyber space. Is the drag net out on the Internet. Meet a man who says he's an Internet crime fighter making life miserable for free music down loaders.
At 4:00 p.m. on CNN "LIVE SATURDAY," "Dollar Signs" and finding the right mortgage just for you.
And at 5 Pm, up next some people in the news, Tour de France, Lance Armstrong. And people in the news continues with summer blockbuster heavyweight Will Smith, we are back in just a moment. Stay with us everyone.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
